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The Evolution of Mario
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "NFG Games offers an interesting look at the visual evolution of Nintendo's Mario from his humble beginnings as a monkey-chasing carpenter to his more recent incarnations as a Koopa-stomping plumber. The retrospective doesn't stray into 3D Mario territory, but it does include every 2D version of Mario released between 1981 and 2004 -- including early consoles like the Atari 2600 and Colecovision."
From the article:
The SNES versions of Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3 are considered the definitive Marios.
By whom? Heathens perhaps. SMB 1, 2 and 3 were for the NES. The cart for the SNES was the same games just touched up a bit. So surely, the NES versions are the definitive ones...
Quite why he chose not to include Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine, I dunno, but he looks pretty cool in them.
Interesting. I'm not familiar with the existance of these titles, but I'm getting a searing headache at their mention. How odd is that?
Paraphrasing the article:
When you show them as 80x160 images on VGA resolution monitors, of bloody course they do.
Quoting the article:
Dark colours around the edges. As opposed to his lovely hand-drawn sprites, which have BLACK FRICKIN' OUTLINES. More consistent, perhaps, but not inherently better.
Bleh. Dumb. This isn't the evolution of Mario, this is some kind of retro artist elitism. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, but when you call your article "The Evolution of Mario," it'd be cooler to talk about the changes in his visual style than to flaunt your wicked cool retro-gamerhood. Please. That's, like, all of us.The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
Glad you're all checking out my little article. Thought I'd respond to some criticisms, some good comments, and some ridiculous whinging (I shant get into which is which...)
75th Trombone had some issues with basically everything... Let's start with the size: When comparing the appearance of an object I think enlarging it makes it easier to see. If you want it smaller, stand away from the computer. In fact, go for a walk. While you're out, think about the difference between aliasing and a black outline surrounding a sprite. As for your last paragraph, I ask you: What the hell?
zenintrude asks about the VB versions of Mario. This is a very good question, I never even thought of the VB as a 2D system, though in this respect they were more or less 2D sprites in a 3D world. My humblest apologies for the oversight.
Idealius writes "He writes it as though it's widely accepted, but from my perspective it's more 50/50. I wish he would throw a few "IMO"'s in there, but oh well." I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to that isn't as widely accepted as I suggest, care to clarify?
gkelman questions my selection of the definitive Marios. I am not, as zenintrude later mentions, talking about the games themselves but the appearance of the main protagonist, our buddy Mario. These AllStar Marios maintain the same character and appeal as the originals, but are remade without (IMESHO) negatively affecting their appearance.
And yes, to those who didn't read the whole article, I didn't include 3D Marios 'cause they're not sprites. I didn't include cameos or other appearances where Mario was not the main character, there are plenty of other webpages that already detail Mario's every appearance.
I thought it was interesting to see how Mario had changed and I put the page together to detail the progression. It's universally agreed that the most recent Mario is pretty f**king ugly, and anyone who disagrees seems only to be playing devil's advocate. (This is good logic, everyone agrees with me except people who don't 'cause they're broken somehow).